A Tale of Two Cities

Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities is about poverty in London and Paris and the book with perhaps the most famous opening and closing lines in English literature: ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…’ and, at closing, ‘It is a far, far, better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.’

Whilst it wasn’t chosen as one of the best of Charles Dickens’s books, it is his book that has been most recommended by experts at Five Books.

Recommendations from our site

“A classic love story, about all the things those awful frogs were doing, a schoolboy story really. It should have been a children’s story.” Read more...

Jeffrey Archer on Bestsellers

Jeffrey Archer, Novelist

“I started a paper about the historical reality in this book. And as I studied it more deeply I got depressed because the things that were happening were similar to Iraq. How the mob could be turned against people by devious minds. They just killed people without even knowing them. The people who were killed were probably very good people, you never know. You just can’t kill haphazardly, heads rolling everywhere for nothing. There must be a way to check these things” Read more...

The best books on Life in Iraq During the Invasion

May Witwit, Literary Scholar